


Naptime Troubles

by GachMoBrea



Series: My Father, Barry Allen [11]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: AU, Adult Scheming, Alternate Universe, Barry is Len's DAD, Father!Barry, Gen, Goes with the Series, Little!Len, Nap Time, OOC, Zzz..., alternating pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-16
Updated: 2016-08-16
Packaged: 2018-08-09 01:53:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7782286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GachMoBrea/pseuds/GachMoBrea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Len is being really stubborn about taking a nap.<br/>But that won't stop his family from trying....</p><p>Alternating POV.<br/>"L" means "Len" POV  &  "B" means "Barry" POV</p>
            </blockquote>





	Naptime Troubles

\- L -

It's the weekend. Barry and Len are cleaning up a board game in the living room after Len had won with twice as much 'money' as his father.  
Once it's put away, Barry turns to Len and offers him his hand, "Nap time, kiddo."  
'Nap time?' Len frowns at the speedster. "But I don't wanna."  
'I might be a kid again but I certainly don't need a 'nap'. I'm not a baby.'  
His dad frowns. "But you're clearly tired. Why not at least rest in bed for a little while?"  
'Anyone lying down long enough will pass out. Nice try, Barry.' He smiles, "No thank you. I'm fine."  
Then, before the hero can try another tactic, Len runs over to the bookshelf and picks something at random to read. 'Great, a book about a duck.'

\- B -

Barry sighs a little at his son's stubbornness. 'He's probably trying to be 'one of the adults' and thinks he's too old for a nap.'

\- L -

Len puts the duck book back and searches the collection for something more decent to read. There's one about a detective that's significantly thicker than the others, so he grabs that one.  
"Here, let me help you with that." Barry scoops his son up in his arms and carries him over to a rocking chair so he can rest in his lap. "Do you want me to read from the beginning?"  
'Right,' Len inwardly sighs. 'I'm not supposed to know how to read yet.'  
"Yes please," he tries for happy-go-lucky but it ends up being a little flat.  
"Okay then."

\- B -

'Got him relaxed at least.' Barry congratulates himself as he opens the book to begin reading. "In the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine..."  
As the story unfolds, Barry slowly starts to rock the chair back and forth. At first it's just a slight movement, barely noticeable and hardly causing the body to move at all. By the end of the fourth chapter, he has them moving at a snails pace but moving none the less.

\- L -

"It was one o'clock when we left..." Barry is reading the story.  
'He's starting to rock the chair more.' Len inwardly rolls his eyes. 'The man doesn't know when to give up.'

Len waits until the end of the first story, fells a pull to slumber as the chair rocks at a steady pace now but refuses to allow his eyes to close.  
"...You are very welcome to put any questions that you like to me now, and there is no danger that I will refuse to answer them."  
He uses that as a springboard, "Dad, what does the word 'sociopath' mean?"  
"Uh," his father stills in his rocking, hands frozen in their action of turning the next page. "Someone very antisocial. They don't really care about others."  
"What does 'antisocial' mean?" Len asks directly after, doesn't even wait for the hero to take a breath.  
"Antisocial is when you don't want to be in the company of others," Barry explains, finally getting his page turned.  
"Why are people called a company?" he slides of his father's lap to look him in the eyes. "I thought companies were places to make things."  
"They are, sort of," Barry rubs the back of his neck with one hand as the other keeps his place in the book. "A company is a commercial business; a large group of people working with tools and machines to make things or create ideas. But you can also be in someone's company when you're around them."  
"Do all companies have commercials?" Len purposely makes his eyes go a little bigger. "How many companies are there in the world?"  
"Uh."

\- B -

Barry pulls out his phone. 'I thought I almost had him there. Maybe if I can answer all his questions, he'll get back in my lap and I can try again.'  
He researches his son's question and reads the answer, "There are 45508 companies listed in stock exchanges around the world, but that's just listed companies. The number of formal unlisted companies would be a wild guess as there is no central quantified effort to build an international registry."

\- L -

Len grins, "What does 'quantified' and 'international' mean?"  
'If he thinks I'm going to run out of questions. He's got another thing coming.'

-

They go back and forth with question and answer, the book ending up closed on the floor next to the rocking chair when Barry needs two hands to explain 'distance' and 'depth' to his boy.  
Len learns a few things he didn't bother to know in his other life and a most of what he asks he doesn't bother trying to remember.  
After two or so hours of talking, it's BARRY who now looks like he needs a nap; not LEN.

"But-"  
"Okay," Barry lifts his hands to cut Len's next question off. "That's enough learning for one day. My phone needs to be charged now."  
The speedster gets up and plugs his cell into the charger by the lamp. Len shrugs, picking out a few pieces of paper to try his hand at paper airplanes.

\- B -

'Okay, so that didn't work.' Barry sighs, looking over to his son who's already moving on to the next thing. '  
He looks at his phone. 'I might need help with this one.'  
He texts his wife for suggestions.  
She texts back: ;-}  
'Whatever that means.' Barry stares at it, hoping the emoticon wasn't telling him he was on his own.

-

Joe shows up an hour later with a box.  
"Hey guys," his father-in-law greets them with a smile. "Barry, I got something to tell you from work. Can we talk in the kitchen?"  
"Sure," Barry glances over to his boy who is stifling a yawn in his fist as he meticulously builds a tower out of small, wooden bricks.

In the kitchen, Joe pulls a brown bear out of the box.  
"Iris sends her love, but she got a last minute story she had to run after," Joe explains, putting the box near the back door for later recycling. "She asked me to bring you this."  
"What is it?" Barry looks the stuffed animal over. "Other than a bear, of course."  
"It's a bear with a hidden talent," the detective winks, pulling out his phone and hitting a button. The bear quietly starts playing music.  
"Brilliant," the speedster smiles, taking the bear in his hands to look it over more carefully. "I can't even see the speakers."  
"Hush," Joe warns him, glancing into the living room to make sure Len was still there. He smiles when he sees his grandson and turns his attention back to the brunette, "She says to just convince him that you know what's best and that he doesn't have to 'sleep' but he needs to lie down for five minutes."  
"Then," the detective taps the bear. "You play some lullaby really quiet and see if that works."  
"She's a genius," Barry shakes his head in amazement. "I just hope Len doesn't put up a fight."

\- L -

Len tries to stop another yawn but doesn't' quite succeed. 'What's wrong with me?'  
'Maybe I'm younger than I thought?' He rubs furiously at his eyes. 'No. I probably just over did it with everything that went on this week. I should probably turn in early tonight.'  
His dad comes back into the room while his grandpa runs up the stairs with something hidden in his suit jacket.  
"Okay, Len," Barry tells him with a firm but gentle tone. "I still think you need a nap."  
"But I don't think I do, Dad," Len pouts at him, trying his hand at a dejected look as he sighs to his tower.  
"I know, buddy," the speedster crouches down closer to him. "But I'm your father and it's part of my job to know what's best for my son, even if he doesn't always agree with what that is."  
"I won't fall asleep for a long, long, long time and I'll be so BORED," he huffs, putting a touch of a whine to it for added affect.  
"Then I'll make a deal with you," Barry smiles. "You lay in your bed for five minutes, just FIVE minutes, and if you still haven't fallen asleep; you can come back downstairs. Okay?"  
'5 minutes; 300 seconds; done in groups of ten, that's 30 groups.' Len heaves a dramatic sigh. "Okay."  
"Thank you, Len," his dad stands again and offers him his hand. "Shall we go up?"  
'Probably trying to tire me out with the short climb up the stairs.' Len nods, "Yep!"

Joe is waiting for them at the top of the stairs, trying to hide a secret smile and desperately failing.  
"Will you still be home in five minutes when I get up, Poppa?" Len asks him as they take the final step. "You can teach me another card game!"  
"Sorry, Lenny," the detective frowns. "I gotta get back to work. But I'll show you next time, all right?"  
"All right," Len lowers his shoulders, dragging his feet slightly as Barry leads him the rest of the way to his room.

He gets in, looking over to the clock to check the time in order to keep track, then inwardly grimaces. 'I'm not supposed to be able to tell time either.'  
"Will you come back for me after five minutes?" he asks Barry.  
"Of course I will," his dad smiles. "I made a deal, didn't I?"  
'Making deals is one thing. Keeping your word is another. But the speedster of his universe was a man of his word so,' Len nods. "Okay. Just checking."  
"Just try to relax," Barry tells him, closing the blinds so there's less light and taking off Len's shoes. "Even if you don't fall asleep, resting for a bit will do you some good."  
"If you say so," Len shrugs, making sure he could still see the clock in dimmer light. 'Maybe I can convince one of the adults to get me a wrist watch?'  
"Have a good rest, Len," Barry kisses him on the forehead. "I'll see you in five minutes."  
Then the speedster goes out the door, leaving it open a crack.  
Len takes a deep breath and starts counting...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...

\- B -

Barry sneaks back downstairs quietly and turns off the volume on the landline before doing the same thing to his cell. He takes a few seconds to research the best melody to use before sending it to the bear upstairs. He doesn't want to spook his son or get him to realize what's going on, so he turns it down almost as low as it can go.

\- L -

...143...144...145...146..14-wait.  
Len sits up. Something is playing in his room. He looks around and sees a new bear has 'magically' appeared in his bedroom. He pulls the bear close to his ear and chuckles a little. 'Clever Barry.'  
He puts the animal under his pillow and smirks when it drowns out the quiet melody.  
'Now, where was I?'  
155...156...157...158...159...160...

Len doesn't realize his eyes are closed. He just keeps counting in his head.  
Then the numbers start playing musical instruments and that really should have set off alarm bells, but they were doing such a great job that he didn't want to disturb them by telling them 'numbers don't play instruments'.  
Then he thinks he hears the door open but there are no doors on the stage with the instruments, so he must have heard something else.  
Oh, how nice. Here come the dancers.

\- B -

Barry checks on his son exactly five minutes later.  
The bear isn't where Joe left it, but his boy is fast asleep, a small smile on his adorable little face.  
He takes a picture, without the flash of course, and send it to Iris.  
Underneath he adds, "Mission: Accomplished. Couldn't have done it without you. <3"  
She texts back, "Mother knows best. <3"  
Barry can't agree more.

 

\---

**Author's Note:**

> Book Note (It Was):  
> "Sherlock Holmes" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
> 
> P.S. I own nothing.


End file.
